Dianne Watts celebrates her re-election as mayor of Surrey with her supporters on Saturday.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Dianne Watts celebrates her re-election as mayor of Surrey with her supporters on Saturday.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Dianne Watts celebrates her re-election as mayor of Surrey with her supporters on Saturday.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Dianne Watts celebrates her re-election as mayor of Surrey with her supporters on Saturday.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Dianne Watts celebrates her re-election as mayor of Surrey with her supporters on Saturday.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Dianne Watts celebrates her re-election as mayor of Surrey with her supporters on Saturday.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

Victorious Dianne Watts smiles at her re-election as Mayor of Surrey with her successful Surrey First councillors behind her Saturday, November 19, 2011 in Surrey, B.C.Ian Lindsay
/ PNG

By 7 p.m., 66,706 people had cast ballots in Surrey, just shy of the 69,000 who voted overall in 2008. In the last election, Surrey's Dianne Watts trounced her only challenger and was backed up with a nearly full Surrey First slate.Jason Payne
/ PNG

Supporters and candidates cheered as Watts high-fived her new council at the Central City Brewing Co.

“I'm absolutely thrilled,” Watts, 52, said from her victory party at the Central City Brew Pub, flanked by her Surrey First slatemates and firefighters.

"The people of Surrey saw the quality of candidates and the work we've done over the past three years. At the end of the day people just want the job done."

Watts, who had four injections in her spine this morning so she could stand, credited her team with a clean campaign, saying it got "nasty" near the end, and thanked all the volunteers and family members.

Watts was expected to be a shoo-in for the top spot, having held it since 2005 when she captured 45,981 votes (55.3 per cent) to steal the mayor’s chair for Doug McCallum in a surprise victory. In 2008, Watts got 51,423 votes compared with 8,465 for her sole opponent.

The rival SCC slate didn’t even run a candidate against Watts in this election. Buchanan, who ran as an independent for the first time, had argued voters feel disrespected by Surrey council, particularly with its decisions to build a new City Hall in the City Centre, approve a gas tax increase for transit projects elsewhere in Metro Vancouver and to allow U.S. president George Bush to speak in the city.

But it appears that didn’t matter Saturday.

As the Surrey First supporters partied, those in the SCC camp had all were all packed up, with only a handful left at 10 p.m.

Bose, who pushed for a ward system in Surrey, said he was surprised with the results saying, "I felt we had a really solid campaign. I believed we had the issues."

Bose, 79, whose parents were Surrey pioneers, said he was troubled by the low voter turnout, and said a ward system would have resulted in a more democratic vote.

"This regrettably is the phenomenon we saw in 2008 when there was an overwhelming influence of the slate all around Dianne Watts' persona."

Bose, a former Surrey mayor who has been involved in politics for 28 of the past 33 years, said he plans to spend more time with his grandchildren and get back into his competitive cycling and woodworking.

He won't run again, he said, but will still support the SCC. "I'm not disengaging from them; we still have important issues to discuss," he said.

Watts said Bose had "contributed significantly" to the council and wishes him the very best.

She added a clean sweep didn't mean the council wouldn't be accountable, insisting Surrey First is a coalition of different views and didn't always vote the same.

Her council will continue with focus on developing its City Centre into a second downtown for Metro Vancouver with a new library and City Hall in the area around the Surrey Central SkyTrain.

The Surrey First platform for the next three years includes providing services for at-risk youth, including a child advocacy centre — where youth under 16 can seek help in dealing with abuse — expected to be “ready to go” by February, and more recreation facilities.

Watts also pledged to boost the RCMP’s street presence by 30 officers, add 12 firefighters, and establish a community court. She said she wasn’t sure how much her promises would cost, but noted the city has to tackle the “root causes of crime.”

Expanding Surrey’s job base, with a new arts facility in south Surrey, 50-metre pools for Guildford and south Surrey, and an expansion of the Fraser Surrey Docks to create about 800 jobs, are also high on the agenda, along with pushing for light rail across the city.

Watts said she would lobby for a range of transit options in Surrey as soon as possible. She argues light rail is “an effective and efficient form of transportation,” and, along with streetcars, would complement the existing SkyTrain and buses.

Surrey is already investigating three light rail routes: 104th Avenue between 152nd Street and City Centre (near the Surrey Central SkyTrain); King George Highway from City Centre to Newton (and eventually South Surrey); and Fraser Highway between City Centre and Langley.

ksinoski@vancouversun.com

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